Narratives of Shipwrecks of the Royal Navy; between 1793 and 1849 eBook

The boats, headed by Lieutenant Stewart, approached
about ten o’clock, and the people continued
dropping into them from the ship for some time.
Captain Todd and Mr. Bainbridge continued to the last
to give orders for the safety of those who remained
alive.

Lieutenant Duff gives the following account of the
closing scene:—­

’Lieutenant Stewart’s ardour in the cause
of humanity was only equalled by his judgment in affording
relief. When he reached the Queen Charlotte,
he dropped his tartane under the bows, where almost
all the remaining crew had taken refuge. Little
more than an hour had elapsed, after this assistance
was given, before the ship blew up. All that
had been left unburnt immediately sunk down by the
stern, but when the ponderous contents of the hold
had been washed away, she for an instant recovered
her buoyancy, and was suddenly seen to emerge almost
her whole length from the deep, and then, turning over,
she floated on the surface, with her burnished copper
glistening in the sun.’

Such was the fate of the Queen Charlotte, which, excepting
the Ville de Paris, was the largest ship in the British
navy.

With the gallant vessel perished six hundred and seventy-three
of her men and officers; amongst whom were Captain
Todd and Lieutenant Bainbridge. These two officers,
with heroic self-devotion, remained to share the fate
of their ship, occupied to the last in endeavouring
to save the lives of the men.

Before Captain Todd fell a victim to the flames, he
had the presence of mind to write the particulars
of the melancholy event, and to give copies of his
account to several of the sailors, charging them to
deliver it to the admiral if they should be so fortunate
as to escape.[5]

The following daring exploit is related of Lieutenant
Bainbridge in James’s Naval History.
We transcribe it as affording a striking example of
the union of undaunted courage with endurance in the
character of a British sailor.

“On the evening of the 21st of December, the
British hired 10 gun cutter, Lady Nelson, while off
Carbareta Point, was surrounded and engaged by two
or three French privateers, and some gun vessels, in
sight of the 100 gun ship, Queen Charlotte, and the
36 gun frigate Emerald, lying in Gibraltar Bay.
Vice-Admiral Lord Keith, whose flag was flying on
board the former ship, immediately ordered the boats
of the two to row towards the combatants, in the hope
that it might encourage the Lady Nelson to resist,
until she could approach near enough to be covered
by the guns of the ships. Before the boats could
get up, however, the Lady Nelson had been captured,
and was in tow by two of the privateers.

“Notwithstanding this, Lieutenant Bainbridge,
in the Queen Charlotte’s barge, with sixteen
men, ran alongside, and boarded with the greatest
impetuosity; and after a sharp conflict, carried the
Lady Nelson, taking as prisoners seven French officers
and twenty-seven men.—­six or seven others
having been killed or knocked overboard in the scuffle.
Lieutenant Bainbridge was severely wounded in the head
by the stroke of a sabre, and slightly in other places.”